Enchanting
by claudiaEB
Summary: When will Harry notice Ginny?, I ask myself, Ginny rocks now! But,well there's nothing one can do except for writing a story about them and their growing friendship that takes off in the middle of Harry's sixth year; all because of an Enchanting..SPOILERS
1. Thinking

Title: Enchanting  
  
Author: cla-U-dia  
  
Disclaimer: Most of the story belongs to legendary J.K Rowling, except for some things =D  
  
Notes: I just wanted to say that I really loved Ginny's personality in Order of the Phoenix, GO GINNY!!! YOU ROCK!! Oh, and this is my first H/G story, so come one people and give it a try =D  
  
***  
  
It was a cold and rainy morning. Weeks had passed by since the brittle rays of the sun had succeeded to penetrate through the grey clouds in the sky. The summer veil that had lingered on till the first weeks of October had waved farewell for the last time this year, and only shadows of the once golden morning were left.  
  
Over the densest dark green spruces, and withering autumn leaf-trees, in the east country side of England, flew a flock of croaking snow-white seagulls, fleeing, from the whipping raindrops that poured down the dull sky. A raising castle was visible on a lonely cliff, as the hoary birds reached the far side of the rural area. The waves of the water below crashed brutally against the rocks of the green crag. And flying upwards the solid stonewalls the croaking of the seagulls became more distant till they disappeared in the blurry sight of the torrential raindrops, perhaps succeeding to escape from the coldness and darkness that had fallen months ago.  
  
Hogwarts castle stood there, on the cliff, with a defiant position against the rude storm, the tormenting tempest, viewing the eternal line of spruces on its east side. And waiting for the sun, for the promise of a bright future.  
  
In one of the towers of this castle, in the Gryffindor tower to be specific, in the sixth year boys' dormitory laid Harry Potter in his bed and stirring uncomfortably in his sleep, his maroon beddings on the floor. The nape of his neck to his forehead with the throbbing scar was drenched in sweat. Cries, laughs echoed in his dream, mumbling words and whispers. Shadows surrounded him, but he couldn't see. A veil, velvet black and fluttering prevented him from coming nearer, barred him from seeing. He tried to scream but no words came from his open mouth. And in his frustration he took a tight grip of the tattered curtain, feeling its silky texture beneath his fingers, and ready to enter. Then he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Slowly turning around he saw the face of him, stare back at him. The pair of hazel eyes smiling. That was the moment when he got his voice back. And as silently as a feeble summer breeze coming rolling over hills he whispered; "Sirius".  
  
Harry suddenly snatched his vivid green eyes open, gasping as he gazed on the dark brown ceiling above him. He was not conscious of Neville's snoring on the bed beside him, until he heard a loud grunt and something falling hard on the floor. With his heart still beating he rose up, his pyjamas soaked of sweat, clinging to his body. Trembling he moved away the heavy red curtain around his four-poster bed, and saw Neville's book ("Magical Herbs and How to Discover Them" by Ruby Calatas) on the floor, and a hand sticking out behind the drape of Neville's bed. His eyes moved to the three other beds in the dormitory. Everyone, who meant Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville, were still sleeping. Their heavy breathing and Neville's coughing and snoring trembled in the silent room, making Harry perfectly clear that it was only he who was fully awake this Saturday morning.  
  
He sighed, grabbing his glasses from the bedside table while climbing out the bed.  
  
With lumped shoulders Harry walked to the bathroom on the far side or the room, trying not to think of the dream, the same dream he's had since he came back to Hogwarts. What would the Daily Prophet write today, he found himself asking as he faced his reflection on the bathroom mirror, what would they write about Lord Voldermort's growing regime? No answers. His green eyes, his mother's eyes, stared back at him sadly. For a brief moment a golden ray of fury passed by the emerald gaze, a rage to the incapability of being able to do something, to be stuck here and not being able to fight together with the Order of the Phoenix, to fight for his parents' death, for Sirius's.... He inhaled deeply shaking away those thoughts that somehow made him think back to the battered veil that haunted in the back of his mind.  
  
A sudden chill made him swiftly aware of his soaking pyjamas. Without glancing at his reflection on the blank mirror in front of him he took off his brown striped pyjamas shirt. A lean boy, with the visible traces of already entered manhood, showed the blank surface of the tall bathroom mirror.  
  
The dark hair pointing at every direction seemed even more tussled than usual. Unconsciously he tried to flatten it, but failed.  
  
His eyes traced from his hair and back to his face and seeing his tired features reflect upon the blank mirror he splashed some water to his face and hair, his hands afterwards gripping on the edges of the white basin. A flailing veil crept slowly into his mind, as a beaming face looked down at him, the fluttering shroud whirling behind. Perhaps he could try to finish the two parchment long Transfiguration essay they had for Monday, he thought, closing his eyes tightly while slowly breathing in, trying to forget.  
  
He quickly walked out the bathroom. While opening his trunk by the end of his bed and grasping a clean shirt from the bottom of the stem, he became suddenly aware of the heavy rain outside. He sighed. Another soaking wet quidditch practise, he thought devastated, before leaving the dormitory, hearing, before closing the door, Seamus mumble in his dream: "Not another cookie Mummy! You should know right about now that my uncle Ron is not an idiot of a lizard!"  
  
*  
  
To his convenience the common room was empty. The fire from yesterday had long ago burned out. He lumped down on his favourite corner of one of the sofas nearest the fireplace, soon conscious of the quill, ink and parchment up stairs, lying untouched on the floor by the foot of his bed. That thought quickly entered his mind, but vanished as hastily again. He could easily do the homework tomorrow.  
  
So instead Harry found himself with his chin buried in his hands, his elbows resting on the armchair, as he gazed deeply into the ashes in the fireplace. He was still not hungry. Not that he had been quite hungry since he'd begun school this term. His mood had taken away the pleasure tasty food usually gives. He found everything fairly meaningless, even quidditch, something he'd found previous years at Hogwarts school like his only consolation when everything else seemed hopeless.  
  
Nowadays he felt empty at almost everything. There was no point. He could sometimes walk along the long corridors together with Ron and Hermione without hearing a single word they were saying, even when they were talking directly to him. And sometimes he forced himself to laugh at some of Ron's funny remarks about Professor Snape, Malfoy and his baaing cheeps, or Milicent Bulstrode's hideous nose, just to rub away the anxious and worrying expressions off their faces. But they were still concerned, and various times when they tried to talk to him about what really troubled him he ended up getting angry at them, demanding them to leave him alone, or he would just shrug and mumble that he was tired. Something he knew they didn't believe.  
  
The truth was that nowadays, his mind seemed to drift away. His thoughts didn't longer concern the upcoming quidditch match against Slytherin, the amount of homework, or whether Snape was going to poison him during next lesson or give him a yet another "D" to release his fury of the fact that Harry had surprisingly enough succeeded to receive an "O" in Potions and was therefore able to read NEWT standard in Potions with Snape as the teacher. Something neither Harry nor Snape appreciated.  
  
He found himself thinking over and over again, when everything would end. When he would be forced to meet Voldermort for the last time, the destiny he was meant to have that had been foretold sixteen years ago. If he would survive, or face death like his parents had, like Sirius had.  
  
He let out a groan of frustration as his hands covered his eyes and pushed his hair away from his face, when he heard a voice calling him from the top of the whirling stairs to the girls' dormitories: "Harry?" Ginny Weasley descended the staircase, holding a parchment and a quill tightly in her arms. "Are you OK?"  
  
Harry craned around swiftly in his seat, jumping slightly out of surprise. He saw her by the last step of the stairs, and managed to smile briefly: "Yeah," he mumbled, seeing the increasing frown on the white forehead a few feet away from him. "Just tired, had trouble sleeping only."  
  
She peered at him, taking a step nearer at where he was sitting. "Are you sure?" she asked raising one eyebrow as she continued gazing at him demandingly. "Cause you've been saying this for so long that I'm finding it hard believing it anymore."  
  
This was the first time Ginny had said the same thing that Ron and Hermione had been telling him for a while now, directly to him and him alone. Harry gazed back at her, suddenly annoyed of her sincerity, though he knew that she was right. Who did believe him?  
  
"Well if you find it hard believing it, then don't," he snapped, looking away when he saw her tense where she stood.  
  
"You know," she said after a moment of pure silence with a voice like she had come to realisation of something very important. "You don't have to be rude every time someone asks you how if you're OK. Maybe they just want to help-"  
  
Harry turned his head to her, seeing the composure face still gazing at him. "Then, people shall stop worrying whether I'm OK or not. There's nothing troubling me, Ginny. I don't need any help. I'm fine, thank you."  
  
"Well, that's the hook," she said coolly walking nonchalantly towards the opening of the Fat Lady. "You don't seem like you are."  
  
Seeing the soon disappearing waist long red hair made the usual guilt in the pit of his stomach to lurch in protest.  
  
"Wait, Ginny!" he shouted.  
  
A face was first visible behind the corner of the wall, then the grey cloak with the wavy red hair hanging loosely down the shoulders. "I'm sorry," he muttered under his breath, loud enough for her to hear it, and with his eyes staring uncomfortable on the red and golden carpet on the floor.  
  
There came no reply, making him believe that she'd turned around and left, leaving him stupidly looking down at the floor. But when he raised his eyes he saw that she was still there, looking at him, as if waiting for him to continue.  
  
He sighed. "It's just that-" he looked at the ceiling, and then at her, whose face was calm and serene. He searched for the right words, but his tongue seemed to have been swallowed and stuck somewhere in the middle of his throat. "I-I-keep thinking all the time." The words came quickly, not giving him anytime to reflect. "I don't want to think anymore."  
  
The words sounded stupid, even to him. But it was exactly what he felt, and he felt rather surprised that they'd come so naturally and that he'd said them in front of Ginny Weasley. At the same time he felt like a tremendous relief to actually have spoken them aloud, to say what he was longing for but never could achieve, and least of all in his dreams.  
  
Ginny just looked at him and by the expression on her face, a mixture of realisation and relief, Harry knew that she'd understood what he meant. Crookhanks walked drawlingly from his sleeping corner towards Harry and purred softly, his tail curling itself around Harry's leg.  
  
"I think that I can help you with that Harry," she said thereafter with a determined voice. Harry just looked at her, confused and slightly taken back. For a quick moment he thought that she was pulling his leg off, but from the grave expression on her face he knew that she being serious.  
  
When Harry didn't answer, she added impatiently; "Follow me Harry." He still didn't move. She smiled at him. "I'll show you."  
  
And turning around she walked out of the common room, having Harry soon following her and leaving Crookshanks slightly annoyed, not because he believed her to a hundred percent of what she'd just said, but because this would prevent the flickering battered veil slither into his mind yet again.  
  
*  
  
They went along the long and quiet corridor in the Gryffindor tower, greeting Headless Nick, who had been out for a morning stroll around the castle, and went down the staircase that would lead them to the marble staircase. They had to hide behind a steel armour when they saw Peeves fly with a vicious look on his face, with Filch close behind uttering filthy words about the poltergeist, and only when hearing Filch's roaring voice become like the noise of an annoying wasp as he limped along the corridor further and further away, did they dare to walk down the marble staircase.  
  
Entering the Entrance Hall, Ginny turned left, and just when Harry though that she was leading them to the north tower she turned right, and walked upwards an old staircase that cracked dangerously by every step. Harry was now very curious of where they were actually heading to, but after having asked Ginny three times already he knew that there wasn't actually any meaning of asking her again, though she was determined to not say a word until they got there.  
  
"The astronomy tower?" he said finally, when they climbed the last staircase, and reached a huge stone platform, the rain quickly soaking him wet as he stood there on the middle, gazing at Ginny with an expression of what-are-you-crazy? "You wanted to show me the astronomy tower?"  
  
Ginny, who had been bright enough to stay on the threshold, entering the platform, now quickly ran to the stone wall on Harry's left that seemed to be a very tiny tower compared to the other ones in the castle. She turned to him, her quill and parchment hidden under her cloak. "It's the old astronomy tower, Harry!" she shouted, not knowing if he'd be heard through the rain that smattered the cold ground.  
  
Harry looked around, yes there were some minor differences, like the tower, he came to realise. Ginny suddenly whispered something under breath. Harry didn't catch the whole sentence as he stepped nearer, but at least understood that it was a spell. Soon the brick stones moved away, like the brick wall when entering into Diagon Alley at the Leaking Cauldron, but with the difference that instead off showing an opening there was a door.  
  
Harry could only gape, while Ginny entered, beaming brightly at him by the door in spite of her drenched hair and clothes.  
  
"Will you come in, Harry-" she smiled." -or will you stand there in the rain?"  
  
Still gaping (Harry knew that he must look foolish by now), he entered into a small circle formed room with a soft red carpet that came up to his ankles and a ceiling showing a bright and golden sun above. Harry looked at it and before he needed to ask why there was a sun shining, when it was a the worst hurricane ever outside, Ginny whispered; "It's an enchanted ceiling, like the one in the Great Hall."  
  
Harry nodded, forcing his eyes away from the ceiling above, which somehow gave in an unexplainable peace and calmness inside him, to look around. There was nothing else to see, besides the carpet and the cushioned ebony white walls. And in all Harry's bewilderment he found himself asking why he, Ron and Hermione hadn't found this room having the Marauder's Map and all, but when thinking about it more he came to realise that the map had still secret passages and furtive rooms, which they hadn't discovered yet. And this was one of those.  
  
"How?" was all that Harry could muster out, his gaze wandering back to the beautiful sky above, while water continued to trace along his face, feeling an unreasonable warmness in spite of his drenched clothes.  
  
Ginny had removed her parchment and quill from under her soaked cloak, and had sat down against the cushioned wall, when she looked up at him, shrugging, neither she giving away a sign of uncomfortable with her damp clothes clinging to her body like a second skin. "Oh well, it was mum actually who kind of helped me."  
  
"Mrs. Weasley!?" Harry asked intelligently, wondering how many surprises he would receive in one day. The fact of Mrs. Weasley telling Ginny about a secret room, which wasn't perhaps permitted to be used, was as reasonable as if Malfoy dancing the Hula-hula in the Great Hall during supper.  
  
"No, Piggy," Ginny answered, rolling her eyes. "Of course my mum!" Harry still looked at her, still as surprised. Ginny saw his face and grimaced. "Well, okay she didn't tell me just so that I would run and seek for it. She thinks that I have more common sense than that," she beamed at this, "It was during one of her moments when she told me about where she used to go during nights to meet my father" (At this point Harry could see Ginny blush slightly, colouring her cheeks briefly pink) "and not being caught by the usher Apollyn Pringle-" (at this point she caught Harry grinning, and her cheeks flushed even more) "-Hey, they were NOT doing THAT!- Anyway, will you let me continue? Good, where was I? O yes, well she always told me about this room, and well I put two and two and made it to four, and well- that's my explanation."  
  
Harry nodded, still standing up, his eyes tracing back to the ceiling yet again. Somehow it caught his whole concentration, and made his mind blank and filled with fluffy things like white clouds, buzzing butterflies, colourful flowers and the smell of roses.  
  
"This is why I wanted you to come, Harry," Ginny whispered, pointing at the ceiling. "My mum always told me that it was something special about it, making you forget everything, making you somehow happy inside." She smiled at Harry, and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear before saying; "Do you understand what I mean Harry?"  
  
He nodded, and before he knew it he beamed and knew that it came from the deep of his heart, feeling for the first time that there was still hope in the world, as he lay down with his arms under his head, and stared up at the enchanted ceiling with the radiating sun above.  
  
"I call it Alegria Echisero," she said smiling, as if not wanting to disturb him. "'Enchanting Beauty' I come here every morning, well when I'm not too lazy of course!"  
  
But Harry didn't hear her any more. And mumbling the soothing name, he felt himself lost in the eternal sky above.  
  
*  
  
Everything, every nightmare, every dread seemed to swim in a white fog in his head. He could no longer reach out with his fingers and touch them. And every time he felt like was about to feel their surface and fall back to reality, he could almost swear that he heard a warbling nightingale sing in his ears. All he could see was the beauty above him, all he could feel was the happiness that lightened up the whole room, even in the darkest corners of his soul.  
  
After a while he became aware of a scratching sound against paper, and with his emerald eyes still on the merry sun, he asked drawlingly; "What's that noise?"  
  
Ginny mumbled something, and then looked up from her paper, watching with surprise at Harry as if she'd forgotten he'd been there. "Oh, that's nothing really," she looked down again, and continued with the scratching against the surface of the paper.  
  
Harry sat up, forcing his gaze to look away from the ceiling and to Ginny, who was frenetically scribbling down something on the parchment. "Homework?" he asked, Ginny suddenly reminding him of Hermione, with her light brown eyes filled with concentration and a slight trace of insanity, as she continued writing.  
  
Ginny looked up yet again, smiling. "Don't be ridiculous. I don't think that anyone, even Hermione, can do such things here."  
  
"So what is it?" he asked, glancing occasionally at the blue ceiling.  
  
Ginny sighed. "Well- can you keep a secret?" she said, staring at Harry slightly suspiciously.  
  
"You know mine," he answered smiling, remembering what he told her in the common room an hour or so ago, even though it felt like at least two hundred years ago. Ginny raised her eyebrow. "Well, all right, not technically."  
  
She sighed yet again. "OK- I write," she peered at him, waiting him to laugh or something. "So?"  
  
"So what?" Harry said.  
  
"Aren't you going to laugh, say something funny?" she said, still staring at him rather guardedly, still not trusting Harry's calm face. "Not even be sarcastic?"  
  
Harry looked at her, slightly bemused." Am I suppose to?"  
  
Ginny shrugged, the corner of her lips curling. "Suppose not. I don't know- isn't it a little dorky thing to write? I mean Fred and George think-"  
  
Harry raised his eyebrows, his smile increasing. "Ginny, we're talking about Fred and George here. The ones who the renewed the meaning of buying Stinkbombs?"  
  
Ginny snickered, knowing that he'd made a perfect point. "Yeah, guess you're right."  
  
Seeing Ginny dive in her parchment yet again, made Harry slightly curious of what she was actually writing. And he felt that it would be rather polite if he asked rather than not caring at all and return to the ceiling that somehow chanted his name over and over again. "So, what're you writing? Is it a diary?" Harry found himself asking, and suddenly remembering his second year and Tom Riddle. Somehow, thinking about that name felt like someone had just thrown him a huge rock onto his chest. One memory, that had been all foggy and unclear recently suddenly came back to life.  
  
Ginny seemed to be thinking in the same tracks, though he saw her involuntarily shiver in the luminous sunlight. "No. No, more diaries for me," she managed to smile, looking at Harry. "It's more like a novel."  
  
"A novel?" Harry wondered, rather impressed. "Cool! So, can one read an excerpt from it?"  
  
Ginny laughed at this, looking as if what Harry recently had said was something extremely hilarious. "Read it? No! It's personal!" she managed to calm herself down, but still grinned.  
  
"No, but seriously," Harry said, now feeling the sensation of looking up at the ceiling more than ever. The name Tom Riddle was still echoing in his head.  
  
"Yes, serious Harry!" Ginny said, then her face became wondering. "Well, let's say like this, if I ever write a story about you, then you can read it, but if I never do, then you can't read any of my works."  
  
"A story about me?" Harry said, his huge smile slowly fading. "Wow, then you'll have something to write about. And be sure to include all the juicy parts, specially when my parents died, how I got my scar when I was a baby, and then you can write about my first year here at Hogwarts, till my seventh year, even though I'm not sure that I'll survive till my seventh year." He looked away. "The titles should perhaps be ´Harry Potter and the Return of You-Know-Who`, hm and perhaps `Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, Harry Potter and his lost Godfather', and maybe also 'Harry Potter and the Death of Cedric Diggory', and well what should we name my fifth year? Perhaps `Harry Potter and His Lost Faith In Everything Good.'"  
  
He paused, breathing heavily. He didn't want to jump up like that on Ginny, and she looked rather crestfallen at the moment. But he hadn't been able to stop himself. And now it felt like he was holding twenty huge rocks with his bare two hands. The ceiling had suddenly stopped calling for him.  
  
"I'm so sorry for saying such stupid thing," she whispered hoarsely, tugging on a red lock. "I never thought like that, I mean- I'm really sorry Harry"  
  
Harry shrugged, his eyes never leaving the supple rug, which seemed to take his whole concentration.  
  
"Perhaps, we should go back?" Ginny suggested mumbling, fiddling with the watch on her wrist. "The others must already be awake."  
  
Harry nodded, thinking also that it would be best to do so. But neither one of them moved.  
  
"Harry-" Ginny began again.  
  
Harry sighed, managing to smile feebly. "It's all right Ginny, It was I who was a jerk, not you." His eyes drifted up to the ceiling, and felt himself calm down all of a sudden.  
  
There was a moment of silence.  
  
"Harry-" Ginny said again hesitantly.  
  
"I said it's OK, Ginny," he answered somewhat impatiently, turning to her.  
  
"No, it's not about that," she said, fiddling her watch a little more, as if checking whether she should clasp it a little more tighter around her wrist or not. "I was just wondering if you could-"  
  
He watched the guilty expression on her soft features as her eyes darted on the second hand of her watch.  
  
"- Not tell Ron and Hermione?" he asked, understanding the look on her face. "Don't worry, I won't"  
  
Ginny smiled vaguely. "Perhaps I was selfish, and I am still, but from the first moment I opened the door I knew that I didn't want to tell anyone about it. I don't really know why," she shrugged, looking him in the eyes" Ron and Hermione aren't in need of it." She looked up at the ceiling, and then looked back at him. "But when I met you this morning I just knew that my suspicions about you since my fifth year were right. You have every right to know about it, Harry." She stood up and sighed while rolling up her parchment and taking a grip of her quill "This place is so-"  
  
"Special?" Harry said, slightly taken back by her previous words, and also standing up while glancing at the enchanted sky.  
  
Ginny nodded. "Yeah, too special," she answered, her gaze wandering up to the ceiling." I just don't think it's ready to be explored by others." She turned around and opened the door. Outside poured the rain down with the same strength as before, making Harry feel the contrast between warm and cold, to see the distinction between happiness and sorrow.  
  
Harry suddenly shuddered, feeling some of the cascading raindrops kiss his face. Remotely he looked away from the ceiling that shone even more brightly than before, and turned around. The door sealed and they were welcomed by the rain and the grey clouds on the sky. They were back to reality. But this time Harry could almost discern the bright sun behind the heavy clouds, waiting for its return. He smiled.  
  
They walked quietly back to the Great Hall, Harry redeeming what he'd just experienced, until Ginny said; "You know what Harry?" They passed the picture of a troll scratching his head absently.  
  
Harry looked at her, smiling. "No, what?"  
  
Ginny glanced at him, smiling back. "You are really a nice friend, you know that?" Harry looked at her curiously. "I mean, I don't know you as much as I perhaps should, though you've been Ron's friend, like FOREVER!" She grinned. "But with everything that has happened during all these years, I can actually tell you that I consider you as one of my closest friends Harry."  
  
Harry beamed back, shaking his head slightly. "Eh, thanks I guess," he said hesitantly, glancing at her. "You know, you may be Ron's little sister, but you're really cool too."  
  
Ginny snickered. "Yeah, typical man thing to say."  
  
"What?" Harry said, wondering why she was grinning like mad.  
  
She raised her eyebrows, still laughing. "'Eh, thanks I guess. And you know what I think you're really cool too,'" she said, imitating Harry's voice. "Here, have I poured my soul (she made a violent gesture with her arms) for you, and everything you can come up with is, `You're cool too´?" she snickered even more. "But don't worry Harry. It's really cool being consider as cool."  
  
They continued chatting down to the Great Hall, Harry feeling more light- hearted than he'd done for a long time.  
  
"I'm off to leave this," she said beamingly, when they reached the Entrance Hall as she pointed at her parchment and quill. "-and YOU shall go and have a decent breakfast and cram yourself with porridge, eggs, and bacon! One is beginning to think that you're planning to starve yourself to death!"  
  
The Entrance Hall was already becoming rather crowdedly. Various students from Gryffindor walked down the marble staircase by now, one of them Colin Creevey who "Hi'd" them. Ginny mouthed a see you later, since there were already plenty of students parting them, but just as she was about to turn around and walk up the stairs, Harry shouted all of a sudden, "Ginny, when do you think we can return?"  
  
Ginny, craned around. Her face was quite unreadable, as if she was unsure in what to answer. Harry watched the hesitation in her face, and began suddenly dreading of what her answer would be. But then she smiled, even though somewhat uncertain, but enough to make Harry understand there wasn't anything to worry about. "Tomorrow morning, at the same hour Harry!" she shouted back over the many heads, walking upwards the stairs till she disappeared from Harry's sight.  
  
Harry's gaze wandered to the two wide open oak doors into the Great Hall, where voiced and laughs erupted like sounds of music to his ears. He smiled, while walking to the entrance of the Great Hall, and suddenly thinking of a certain enchanted ceiling on a tiny tower with a red carpet covering the floor and cushioned white walls.  
  
When Harry entered the Great Hall he saw Ron and Hermione sitting by the end of the Gryffindor table, and beamingly he waved at them. He could see their chocked faces stare back at him from a distance, till they grinned back. Perhaps they smiled just because they saw Harry walk across the floor of the Great Hall to them, or perhaps because they thought they saw the old Harry walk back to their lives.  
  
*****  
  
So, how about reviewing =D !!!  
  
A chapter 2 ??? 


	2. The beginning

Title: Enchanting  
  
Author: cla-U-dia  
  
Summary: Harry has begun his sixth year. He becomes slowly but surely a very good friend to Ginny Weasley, who is more than Ron's little sister, which he finds out very soon. Ginny becomes a very close friend to him because of hem-hem-hem (I don't want to really give all the details, you'll have to read the story =D ). But what will happen??? Will Harry eventually see Ginny more than a friend? Will Ginny do the same?  
  
Disclaimer: Most of the story belongs to legendary J.K Rowling, except for some things =D  
  
NOTE: Hello again! I'm sorry for not having been able to update for months!!! But I've been abroad and didn't have access to a computer to write!! But now I have a laptop so everything will be fine :D!! BACK IN THE PICTURE!!!  
  
* * *  
  
"Enchanting"  
  
Chapter 2  
  
"So", she said smiling at him from the top of the marble stairs by the Entrance." You meant it. You really came"  
  
"Of course I came", he answered from the bottom of the stairs, tilting his head up. In the greyish morning shroud that fell down from the wide windows Harry saw Ginny descending the staircase, with the pretty red hair tied up in a bun at the nape of her head and smiling." What did you think?"  
  
Ginny mad a loop side grin, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't know what I thought Harry, to be honest."  
  
The Entrance swam in silence, if you excluded the whining wind and cascading rain outside though. The blustery weather, that is to say the autumn wind, sang different tones; when accompanying the rustles of the leaves, embracing the tickles of the raindrops and drinking in the violence of the sea, all together forming a melancholy symphony and a surreal reality.  
  
Perhaps that was why Harry suddenly found himself being loss in words while standing there by the Entrance Hall and waiting for Ginny Weasley, nervously shifting the weight of his left foot to the other. It was when she reached the bottom of the stairs and looked right up at him, with her steady and open gaze staring smilingly at him; he began to understand the unexplainable tickle of uncomfortable that almost made him jump back a step or two.  
  
This was the very first time he was going to spend time with Ginny, alone. It hadn't really hit him, but seeing her standing there, with her hand on the ebony white latter rail with the form of a lion, curiously watching him, the thought suddenly struck him. And the sentence that at that moment pondered in his head right now was . . . he'd known Ginny for six years know, but didn't know a thing about her. Who was she really, besides being Ron's little sister?  
  
"Harry?" she said half amused and half serious. "Earth to Harry!"  
  
Harry startled, blinking a few times. "I'm fine "he said absently, shoving away Ginny's waving hands in front of his face." So, shall we go?"  
  
"Yeah", was her first answer, even though she didn't make any efforts to move. Instead she chose to laugh, nervously, and fiddle with her arm sleeve. "Harry" She bit her lip." I know I'm being stupid right now but- . . . but don't you think that this is awkward?"  
  
Harry stared, thinking he knew what she meant but said instead: "Awkward?"  
  
"Yeah, I mean- well okay I'm being honest here with you now Harry- but" Ginny squinted her eyes, smiling apologetically "Sneaking out in secret in the morning, not telling anyone? What if we get caught, what if- what if people then think about something that is not. not true?"  
  
Harry saw her cheeks colour pink, and her eyes' remorsefully shimmering stare slither back to her shoes. "I didn't think you cared of what people say?" Well, it was obvious he hadn't known what she'd meant, he thought feeling his own face burn of the same reason as her.  
  
She jerked slightly at his abrupt respond, her eyes suddenly meeting his. Even though she was quite small she grew in height when her back straightened and she looked up at him. "I care about what certain people, people like Dean, think, Harry"  
  
Dean.  
  
Harry looked away, the guilt of the previous month returning back to him. He had forgotten about Dean.  
  
"Look Ginny" He sighed, suddenly feeling tired. "I don't want to force you to take me with you. It was you who found that tower, and for you to decide who you want to know about it." He turned away, avoiding her face, and began to walk up the stairs." Just tell me when you have come to any conclusions. I'm going back to sleep."  
  
"Oh, just quit it Harry!" Ginny bellowed, her face fuming red. Harry turned slowly around. "Why do you always keep acting like that?"  
  
"Like what?" he said instead coolly, slightly surprised of her sudden outburst.  
  
"Like a total moron!"  
  
Harry didn't know if to glare or to simply stare.  
  
"I told you. You, Harry." She breathed in slowly, calming herself  
down." I didn't want to offend you Harry, if you called it an  
offend. I told you I was being stupid for thinking like this."  
  
Harry looked away." No, you weren't Ginny. Every person in their  
sanities would have thought like that if they saw you and me  
slink together at five am in the morning. And Dean, especially,  
wouldn't understand."  
  
Ginny heaved a sigh." Maybe I'm overreacting. I mean, we aren't  
exactly boyfriend and girlfriend me and Dean, I think. Or . . . I  
don't know."  
  
Harry chose not say a word; instead he stepped down and stood in front of Ginny.  
  
"I'm sorry for shouting at you, Harry", she mumbled, tugging a lock that had slithered away from the tight bun, behind her ear.  
  
Harry gulped." Sorry for being such a moron."  
  
From the corner of his eyes he saw Ginny smile faintly. He smirked too.  
  
"Right", she giggled, nudging Harry on his shoulder. "Now, let's go now moron"  
  
And together they walked leaving the Entrance quiet and empty again, and as their silent footsteps descended Ginny said. "Harry it will actually be nice having your company every morning"  
  
"Who said every morning?" he said jokingly, his voice now less than a barely whisper, when they turned around a corner, in the Entrance Hall with the wind continuing blowing outside and the rain falling down.  
  
****  
  
..And time passes by..weeks to be precisely.  
  
It was like opening his eyes for the first time after a very long time.  
  
Slowly he became aware of every face, all the changes he hadn't cared to notice before. He saw like if he hadn't seen for five months. Five months of constant thinking, of self pitying, of frustration and constant fury. Five months of never actually being alive; only breathing, thinking and dreaming. Five months of living, only when hearing his name, when the truth was that he didn't longer felt like he existed.  
  
Harry was changing. And as the cold days of the last October month turned to the first week of November Harry found himself beginning to enjoy the chirruping laughs between classes, Ron's mocking comments about Professor Trewlayne's and Firenze's sparkling chemistry during divination and the possibility of them during breaks fleeing to the nearest broom cupboard, and the cold autumn mornings with the rain cascading down with an extraordinary energy.  
  
His thoughts dwelled back to the past and back to the present, as he stared deep at the cracking flames one night. Remembering, recalling the image of himself a few days after Sirius's death and the weeks and months thereafter. And all he saw was a black shadow of him self and nothing more.  
  
At the moment when Ron put his gangly legs over the battered armchair on the green sofa, struggling with his Transfiguration essay while sprawled on the sofa, and Neville yawned loudly smacking a fly on the table on the process, Harry tilted his head slightly and his eyes suddenly met Ginny's at the far end of the Gryffindor common room. She smiled and he smiled back. No, there was no reason to think anymore, a thought suddenly hit him. Harry shook his head absently and turned back to his parchment as he took a tight grip on his quill. No, there was no reason right now to remember.  
  
And just as he was about to begin to note down the first word, he heard a voice in front of him. He looked up and saw an arm, a neck and then red hair covering a sleepy face right in front of him and Ron.  
  
"Well, I'm going to bed now" Ginny said stiffing a yawn while glancing from Ron to Harry. Neville muttered the same thing and went up the staircase to their warm dormitory. He was still a bit sulky at Ron and Harry from their morning joke about his crush on Hannah Abbot (Ron had found Neville goggle at her several times and Monday's stammering when she asked him if he could lend her a rubber proved it all). " I'll see you tomorrow at the same place as always, at the same time as today" She said, winking meaningfully at Harry as if she wanted him to make it understood that he should not be late as he had been this morning.  
  
Ron looked up at her, staring at her slightly annoyed. He scratched his head, and snorted. Not to Ginny but to the white parchment with only a few words scribbled down and black spots of ink. "Why do you keep saying that every night before you go to bed these recent weeks?" he said, absently "You know we always see you at breakfast"  
  
"I'm just being nice" Ginny answered sweetly, before turning to Harry and rolling her eyes. Harry grinned before looking down at his parchment and pretended to be concentrated on his Potions lesson.  
  
"You're just being stupid", spatted Ron, scratching his head while he focused hard on the difficult formula concerning turning a beaver into a rabbit. "Now get along, I've got to concentrate".  
  
Ginny pursued her lips, crossing her arms over her chest.  
  
" You can be so deaf Ron", she snapped, glaring down at Ron who ignored her completely." Why do I always have to be the targets of your puberty outbursts, I was just nicely wishing you both of a Goodnight."  
  
Ron looked up and his ears were becoming slightly reddish. Harry sighed, collecting his things; quill, ink, parchment and book. "Outbursts, eh!? Outbursts, you say, Miss. oh-look- I got-a- pimple- what- will- Dean- say!"  
  
Ginny raised an eyebrow, watching Ron with great amusement as her lips curled. "You know I'm not like that Mr. Oh- why- don't- I- have- a- girlfriend." Her voice was coolly, and even though she tried to act as if what Ron just said didn't have any affect on her, Harry could discern a faint blush cover her cheeks. Harry's eyes quickly scanned for Dean, but he wasn't anywhere near.  
  
By now Ron's ears were screaming DANGER, as they fumed like red lighthouses in the middle of a black ocean. Everyone in the Gryffindor common room went silent, some even held their breaths. A bottle of ink fell of all the sudden down to the floor, splattering black ink on the flooring, but the bottle was soon collected by a sand-haired boy in the second year, who goggled with his blue eyes at the two siblings, not noticing that he was cleaning the floor with Krumben's bushy tail while holding his wand in the other hand.  
  
"Lay off you two", Harry muttered,  
  
"Sod of Ginny", Ron hissed tentatively not obvious of Harry's comment, as he turned back to his paper. Harry glanced at Ginny, but saw nothing that would betray what she thought at that moment. And as the sound in the common room raised again a few levels, though no quarrel with wands was going to happen between the two siblings, she dashed out the common room and up to the fifth year girls' dormitory on the second floor. Krumben drawlingly following her with its black tail high up in the air.  
  
"She's such a baby", Ron muttered through clenched teeth, while his hands went back and forth through his hair, his gaze held firmly on the text before him.  
  
And at that just exact moment Harry got a feeling that that wouldn't be the last thing he heard from one of the Weasley's. Harry shook his head and sighed yet again, feeling miserable when remembering that he still had a two feet parchment to write, and to figure out what to write.  
  
Well, the one thing that Harry had been right about that night had been his Weasley interpretation. Though when he, the next morning met a certain sullen red- haired by the steps of the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall early in the morning, the first thing he heard was: "Ron is such baby, don't you think so Harry?"  
  
Harry shrugged, not feeling in the mood of talking about the same thing Ron had forced him to listen and answer yesterday when all Harry wanted to do was sleep. "A good night's sleep didn't rub away the brother-sister row, eh?" he said, raising an eyebrow, feeling slightly snappy this Friday morning.  
  
Ginny glanced at Harry chilly and didn't say a word all the way through the dark corridors, and two steps, until they reached the cracking staircase up to the old astronomy tower where she began to curse Ron under her breath.  
  
The sky was dull as always, no surprise to Harry. But by this he was prepared, though before stepping out to the rain he enfolded an umbrella that would cover both him and Ginny. Ginny who had been all exited when seeing it a few weeks ago, didn't longer pay it anymore attention than necessary. Obediently she walked near Harry under it and together they reached the solid wall of the tiny tower in front of them.  
  
Ginny muttered the spell, and the door appeared like all the other times before, but as usual taking Harry's breath away.  
  
"Are you always going to act the same way?" Ginny snorted loudly at Harry's expression, as she entered. "One has to wonder how you'd react if you one day saw pigs flying in"  
  
"Being in a bad mood, today perhaps?" Harry snapped.  
  
Ginny turned around. "You don't miss a thing"  
  
Harry barely glanced at her, though he was instantly captured by the ceiling above. He entered slowly, immersed immediately by the magnetism the wonderful sky had on him. The door closed behind him loudly, and he heard Ginny lump down on the floor, but this time she didn't immediately take out her parchment and quill.  
  
"Sorry Harry", Ginny muttered, hiding her face behind her kneecaps. Soon she will bring her hands up to her face, Harry thought instinctually, and when seeing her white hands soon cover her face, he snorted." I'm really sorry, it's just that-"  
  
"Stop playing that game, Ginny", Harry said, looking down at her. Ginny took away her hands, raising one eyebrow as she did so.  
  
"What game?" she answered sulky, bringing her kneecaps closer to her face as she looked up at Harry.  
  
"The one you play when you're annoyed", Harry said directly. The sun above was beginning to warm up his neck." And when you want everyone to say, "Ginny are you okay? What's it Ginny?""  
  
Ginny flushed, looking frustrated." Oh, and what kind of accusation is that!" She looked at Harry furiously." I was just tired and rested my face on my hands"  
  
Harry smiled slightly." And how about your "small" argument with Dean last week, and how quickly you became "friends" again?"  
  
Ginny's face became rather pale and her cheeks blushed pink in the serenade of the sunlight." And how do you know about that?! You weren't even there, Harry!"  
  
"Yeah, but you told me, remember?" Harry smiled sheepishly, still standing by the entrance. The sun became warmer and warmer." You were- how did you express yourself that morning- ehm, o yes- so utterly bad though you felt that you'd gone too far. What did you say exactly?-"  
  
**** ****  
  
. . . The Previous week. . .  
  
"-Harry look at this!" Ginny cried devastate, holding up something gleaming in her hand in front of his eyes. "This is it!"  
  
Harry who was lying down on the carpet, still much too concentrated on the blue ceiling than the object that dangled down from Ginny's hand, forced himself to look up. It was a golden necklace with three heart diamonds. Without even noticing it, he let out a low whistle, and turned around to see the beautiful necklace on Ginny's hand more closely.  
  
"Where on earth did you find it?" he whispered, holding the piece of jewellery over him to see the sun's golden rays reflect on its gleaming surface.  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes." Haven't you paid any attention, Harry?" she wondered loudly, slightly offended.  
  
"What?" answered Harry, comparing the beauty of the necklace with the golden coin from above.  
  
"I was going to show you what Dean gave me! Dean!"  
  
"So, it's serious between you?" Harry said, raising his eyebrows. As far as Ginny had told him, they were only friends who happened to be dating (something he definitely couldn't understand. Though IF they were DATING, then they must be together. Not that Harry knew much about this anyway. well Cho Chang.). "I mean, you and him, and-  
  
Ginny's cheeks blushed pink and her eyes gleamed brightly as she nodded." I think so, Harry", she smiled, but quickly become serious again." But that is not of importance right now, Harry"  
  
Harry turned back to his back and looked at her up side down." Well- you should know that Ron won't be happy about this"  
  
"Forget about Ron now Harry!" Ginny grimaced, gazing at the necklace." Back to this!"  
  
Harry let out a "right", and continued gazing at the golden beauty in his hands." But why do you look so- I dunno?"  
  
"Because-"Ginny sighed, shaking her head as she looked at Harry with big and brown eyes"- I don't deserve it, Harry"  
  
Harry let an intelligent "Oh" out, not asking her anything more. Ginny snorted loudly, snapping her fingers in front of Harry whose green eyes were on the golden coined sun and the silky choker. He looked startled at her, as if reminding himself that she was there.  
  
"It's even his grandmother's Harry", she whispered carefully, looking around scarily" His dead grandmother's. "  
  
"Nice", Harry answered reluctantly, returning the necklace to Ginny quickly." So, what's all the fuss about anyway?"  
  
Ginny heaved a sigh, biting her under lip. "Well, you know, Harry, I have a confession to make" she breathed in." Even if you might not believe it Harry, I was quite whining when I was a little girl, cried a lot and you know (Harry coughed loudly. Ginny who thought he was insulting him, pinched him in the arm).  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
"ANYWAY- will you pay attention Harry or not? Okay, anyway, sometimes it was true and other times I just pretended (she almost whispered the word pretended). But as I grew up, I began to let go of that habit Harry, I mean the "true" habit". And well in the end of my third year it was gone completely- I mean that's what I've come up with" she swallowed, red marks beginning to form on her pink lips." So, instead I got stuck with the "pretend habit"- "  
  
"Ginny", said Harry, sighing" first of all I want to say that you are the most complex girl, or no PERSON I've ever met in my life and secondly can you get to the point? I think I have a headache."  
  
Ginny smacked her lips, and pursued her lips, looking much like a combination of Hermione and Mrs. Weasley" ANYWAY, I usually do this pretend thing to get my way, Harry." As quickly as she'd turn to Hermione and Mrs. Weasley she turned to the old Ginny, and looked down, her face showing true regret and sorrow. "Well I sort of did it to Dean when I found him "tickle" Parvati feverishly in the common room last night (her voice became slightly bitter and sarcastic) . . . I mean, afterwards he said that they were only friends, well ( she looked down)- something we are too . . . I mean perhaps . . . I don't know"  
  
Harry had rubber his left ear to hear those last words. "Oh", he said again, sounding yet again intelligent. "So, that's why he gave you that necklace?"  
  
Ginny nodded, looking miserably. "Oh, I feel so utterly bad about his Harry! I've gone too far! What shall I do Harry? Shall I return it and tell him I'm sorry?  
  
Harry looked at her. Honestly, he didn't have a clue even. Harry shook his head, he also biting his under lip. Somehow, many of Ginny's habits had passed on to him too, like biting his under lip and rub his temples when he was thinking. Even though it had only passed three weeks since he's found about this room, since he began to spend time with her, since he began to really know her.  
  
"Can't you perhaps talk to him-"Ginny immediately swallowed her words as she looked at Harry's darkening face and sad eyes.  
  
"I can't, remember?" he said gloomily, fiddling with the carpet's long white straws. He was no longer lying down.  
  
Ginny looked sad. "But Harry, when?"  
  
"Ginny he doesn't want to, and- "he added, suddenly looking up and seeing her in the eyes. " He has every right to think that way, you know that"  
  
Ginny sighed, letting her arms fall on her sides as she slide down the wall and to the soft rug. "Perhaps, Harry "she leaned down on her elbow, looking with a startling insensitive at Harry. "But when he founds out about- about Sirius, when everyone finds out, he'll understand Harry"  
  
Harry immediately flinched when hearing that name. A wound suddenly opened in his heart, and his head began to throb for real. Slowly he lay down, letting his eyes wander over the enchanted sky.  
  
"Harry-?" Ginny whispered worryingly, crawling silently to his side. Three feet away from him on his left side she laid down, her head turned to him. She bit her lip." Harry-?"  
  
"How about telling me that "pretend thing", you have Ginny?" he said instead, still looking up at the sky.  
  
Ginny looked rather startled at first of his sudden change of expression, but when seeing Harry's smiling face and the green eyes covered with an enchanted gleam covering them, she nodded, most to herself and said; "But only if you promise not to tell anyone"  
  
**** ****  
  
Back at present time.  
  
Ginny sank even lower on the floor, her hair partly hiding her sourly face. She glanced at Harry, but refused to look at him directly." I did not", she muttered silently.  
  
"You did to"  
  
"Not"  
  
"Did to"  
  
"Oh, shut up", she muttered, mockingly." Just remind me to not tell you anything more of my personal life, will you Harry?"  
  
Harry shrugged, suddenly feeling very tired." Can't promise you anything". Ginny looked at him sternly." Just be careful of playing with other people's feelings, Ginny. You'll eventually hurt them"  
  
Ginny gaped at him, looking exaggerated and confused at the same time. "I never do that Harry! Never!"  
  
Harry tilted his head slightly, staring right at her. It was strange the affect the room had on one. Harry was no longer afraid to look deep into someone's eyes, no longer afraid of showing a piece of his soul. She didn't blink, her head still moving in a "no".  
  
"No, you don't", he said, looking away." But you will, even if you don't mean to"  
  
Ginny frowned, looking at him quizzing. "Why?"  
  
"Because", Harry said, now looking up at the sky. "Everyone does."  
  
"Like you did to Hermione and Ron? Like you're still doing. . . " she said quietly, biting her lip.  
  
Harry snorted. "I didn't say that."  
  
"No, but you were referring to them."  
  
Harry didn't respond to that comment. He continued gazing up at the sky. Two puffy clouds moved over the blue arch.  
  
"Why have you drifted away so much Harry? She said carefully, obvious of the silence. "Why can't you talk like you used to before? About the things that really mattered?"  
  
"And those are?" he said, knowing what she meant.  
  
Ginny, who drew circles with her wand on the white carpet, looked up. "About you Harry. Not about what Snape did during class or how much you hate Malfoy and his ugly face."  
  
"Hey- about Malfoy, guess wha-"  
  
"Don't change the subject", she interrupted hastily.  
  
Harry remained quiet, till he turned his head and looked at her. "I talk to you, don't I? Isn't that enough?"  
  
There was a silent moment.  
  
She nodded. "Yes you do, Harry, and I'm really glad ", she smiled sadly. " But you don't want to talk to me about the thing that consumes your heart, Harry. And I know that you consider Ron and Hermione closer friends to you than me"  
  
Harry didn't respond. His face was on the sky, calming the emotions in his inside. " Yes, you are right. I did. But not any more." He sighed. "What you don't understand Ginny is that, everything has changed. Not only me, but them too. They are more, I don't know, involved with each other and other stuff. I don't know."  
  
"It was you who cut the rope Harry" she tog a grip his shoulder." Don't you think that it's time to tie it again?"  
  
Harry heaved a sigh, and tried to smile." Perhaps you're right." He said, more to her than himself. "But right now it seems like you're stuck with me Ginny"  
  
"Sod off", she laughed, "You, who is supposed to be my friend but didn't save me from my evil brother yesterday"  
  
"Why do you fight so often this recent time?" Harry stood up taking off his coat and making a pillow out of it.  
  
"Because he hates me most of the times these days", she answered, the cheerful voice gone.  
  
Harry sat down again and before he knew it he frowned and turned to Ginny who as that moment looked as deflated as she'd done under Harry's second year when he'd defeated the Basilisc and she confessed about the diary. "He isn't always mean to you, Ginny", he said, defending Ron. "It's just his way to be, you know"  
  
Ginny turned her gaze from the sky, the old Ginny now suddenly gone. She looked to down.  
  
" Sorry for being rude to you before Harry. I didn't mean to, really." She said instead, smiling faintly, "You're always nice"  
  
"No I'm not, Ginny" Harry muttered, smiling mockingly and looking at her from the corner of his eye. And before opening his mouth he felt a sting of sorrow pierce his heart like a sharp edged knife, though he suddenly recalled the past. "Remember who punched Dean on the chin last month just because he said that Sirius deserved to die"  
  
"Yeah", Ginny mumbled, looking down on her interlaced fingers." He didn't know", she sighed, trying to smile but failing badly." But that is forgotten and forgiven, Harry. You-"  
  
Harry laughed hoarsely." No, it's not Ginny, "he said all of a sudden sounding sad." You didn't talk to me for weeks, and Dean still doesn't."  
  
Ginny looked guilty, not saying anything so Harry continued." I know that the only reason you began to talk to me was because Hermione talked you over." She gaped at him, guilt still playing in her soft features." Ron told me, Ginny."  
  
"I'm sorry, Harry", she mumbled looking away, flushing feebly.  
  
Harry shrugged" Don't be. After all, he is your boyfriend or whatever- and", he tried to smile but failed greatly "I deserved it. I knew he didn't know. I had no right to do what I did"  
  
Ginny sighed, lying down next to Harry and looking up at the ceiling. "You know, I've tried to talk to Dean that you didn't mean to, but he just won't listen, Harry", she turned her head to him. "But he knows that you're a good person, Harry. He does actually, even if you don't believe it."  
  
Harry didn't respond to that, instead he held his gaze on the ocean blue sky with no clouds in sight, remembering.  
  
**** ****  
  
. . . In The Middle of September. . .  
  
"The ministry of magic is devastated and their hands are tied on. Even the Headmaster of the Wizardry school is unable to prevent the occurrences since He-who-must-not-be-named returned. Another missing Person shocks the Ministry of Magic", Hermione read the head lines of the Daily Prophet her frown increasing by every sentence. " Cornelius Fudge, the minister of Magic, seeks for American, French and Russian help to maintain Order in The wizard Prison Azkaban"  
  
Ron put down his bowl with tomato juice with a load thud on the breakfast board early Monday morning, in the mild September weather." Stop it Hermione, you're giving me a headache"  
  
Hermione frowned, folding the Newspaper harshly." I just don't understand. I mean the Ministry of Magic would have thought about it earlier- I mean taking help from other wizardry ministries, ever since the Deatheaters went back to-"Hermione cast a worryingly gaze at Harry who quietly ate his plate with cold porridge next to Ron. He pretended like he hadn't been listening to her, even though he had heard every word she'd said"- Voldermort"  
  
Ron swallowed the piece of toasted bread with jam, and glanced at Harry. The name Voldermort and Deatheaters was something they tried to avoid ever since Harry had crushed two windows two weeks ago, and without a wand, when Malfoy had a loud conversation with Peter Fowler about Voldermort.  
  
" Well at least not all of them survived." Hermione coughed loudly while looking meaningfully at Ron, kicking him on the chin leg under the table.  
  
Harry continued eating. The porridge seemed now to have been transformed into a non swallowing chewing gum.  
  
"Anyway-" Ron cracked trying to change the subject, while rubbing his chin led." Did you finish McGonagall's assignment yesterday Harry?"  
  
Harry shrugged, feeling their stare on him. So they want me to look up, he thought, feeling their pity and sorry ness wipe all over his face. His anger began to bubble, and he looked up.  
  
Hermione quickly looked away, and Ron began to play with the edge of the glass, splashed with tomato juice. He knew that they didn't want to see his eyes, burst with red, from not sleeping, and his face, as pale as a white sheet of paper.  
  
"Didn't have time", he muttered finally.  
  
Ron raised his eyebrow." But you had every time in the world during our Prefects meeting since there wasn't any Quidditch Practise"  
  
Harry stared at him, knowing that Ron was ignoring Hermione's worryingly eyes. "Well, I didn't. Get it? Or was it too difficult for you to capture my whole sentence. Oops, forgot that you got and A in two subjects!"  
  
Ron turned red. Harry continued eating his porridge, even though he knew that Ron's patience was running out. No, he didn't care, he didn't even mind if Ron would punch him in the Middle of the Great Hall, where everyone was eating a peaceful breakfast, or as peaceful as it could be."  
  
"I think it's you who doesn't get it, Harry" Ron muttered quietly, turning back to his plate with half eaten toasted bread with ham and cheese.  
  
"Great", Harry snapped, standing up abruptly. His glass filled with pumpkin juice next to his bowl with porridge fell down to the floor and broke, breaking into a million pieces. "I'll guess I'll go up the common room."  
  
"Harry!" Hermione shouted crestfallen, also standing up. Some students turned their heads to them and watched them with mild interest. Harry, who had already taken a few steps to the entrance into the Great Hall, turned around and waited for her pledge to make him stay. He crossed his arms, watching the struggle in Hermione's eyes while her gaze went from Ron to Harry.  
  
But none came. Ron grabbed her hand gently, and made her sit down, not once turning around to Harry. "Let him go, Hermione", Harry heard him whisper softly, still holding her hand, his thumb stroking the palm of her hand. Hermione, whose eyes were on Ron's comforting hand, looked slowly up to meet his eyes and she smiled. Her hand still lying in his hand.  
  
Harry looked at the two of them rather confused, as if realising something he hadn't cared to notice before. Then he felt a sting of sickness pierce a hole in his stomach, when seeing the two of them together, perfectly happy . . . without him.  
  
And before he knew it he rushed out of the Great Hall, and instead of running up the Marble Stairs he burst the two giant oak doors open and let the golden rays of the sun enter the Entrance Hall.  
  
The radiating sun warmed his face, and the soft breeze moved his robes slightly. Harry felt that he could stand there, on the green grass till eternity till he heard: "Harry!"  
  
A distance away from him he saw Dean Thomas and Seamos Finnigan walk towards him from the glittering lake, Seamus holding The Daily Prophet in his hand. Dean Thomas's slightly curly hair moved slightly in the wind, and shone darker than ebony black in the sunlight as he moved from the shadows to the sun, the sandy haired boy not far behind.  
  
"Guess what will happen this Friday?" Dean smiled, a dimple forming on his left cheek. Harry shrugged, not really caring. "A private "gathering" with beverages, like Firewhisky, on the House!"  
  
Harry smiled slightly. "Super", he muttered, seeing the grin on the dark face before him vanish.  
  
Seamus took his lack of enthusiasm as tiredness. "Be more cheerful Harry, specially know Mate", he patted on Harry's back, referring to the Daily Prophet in his hand.  
  
"Yeah" Dean Thomas replied back instead of Thomas, squinting his eyes at a certain red-haired girl who walked towards him with a huge smile on her lips." One thing that I'm thrilled of is that at least that -Black didn't made it you know, when that thing at the Ministry a few months ago happened, or else everything would have been much more- Hi, Ginny!"  
  
Harry turned his eyes up slowly from the admiring the ground, to Dean, who smiled foolishly at the approaching Ginny.  
  
"What did you say?" he whispered, his voice trembling of rage.  
  
Dean turned his head to him, furrowing his forehead, slightly annoyed. "That it was a good thing that they killed Black."  
  
"Don't talk about what you don't know", Harry hissed, closing his fists." Take that back"  
  
Seamus sensed the tension between Harry and Dean, as he looked from the black boy to the pale white.  
  
"What's your problem, Harry?" Dean snorted while frowning at Harry's cold face.  
  
"I said . . . take. . . it . . . back". Harry said word by word.  
  
Ginny who had already approached, looked worringly from one another. "What's up here?"  
  
Dean glanced at Ginny, his face betraying that he too didn't have a clue. "Ask him! Just because I said that the bloody Deatheater Black deserved to die he wants to chop my head off."  
  
Harry breathed slowly, not caring of Ginny's sudden pale face staring at him. "Take. It. Back."  
  
"Take it easy, Harry" Seamus gulped. The blond haired guy took two steps back and his gaze wondered worryingly from Harry to Dean. The sun shone brightly and the sky was cloud free, but in spite of the warm weather Harry could feel a cold feeling run through his spine.  
  
Ginny grabbed Dean's arm tightly but her gaze lay on Harry, who refused to look at her at all. "Harry", she whispered, holding Dean's arm tighter so that she almost buried her nails on his arm." Please"  
  
Harry didn't listen. His whole attention laid on Dean whose brown eyes glared at Harry, seizing him if he dared to lay a hand on him.  
  
"Come guys", Seamus croaked, pushing away his bangs and drying off the sweat on his forehead in the process.  
  
"No" Dean said calmly but, yet his voice gave the tone of depressed anger." I want to know what Harry The Great Potter will do if I don't take back that stupid comment"  
  
Harry snorted, feeling morning's anger bubble in his chest. "Oh, you don't want to know"  
  
"What's the matter Harry?" Ginny hissed, loosening her grip on Dean's arm. The silent wind took a grip on her red hair, making the wavy locks blur her eyes. "This is not you, and you know it. You're acting like Malfoy"  
  
Within a second, Harry turned his head and met her gaze. A silent second went by, when he challenged her stare, which inurbanely gazed back at him. He looked away. "Perhaps that's s how I really am. Haven't you thought about that?"  
  
"Then maybe you should just change to Slythering and becomes best friends with Malfoy" Dean snapped, smiling mischievously.  
  
And before anyone knew it Harry's fist hit the left side of Dean's nose. Blood spluttered around. Harry didn't hear when Ginny screamed and Seamus gasped of surprise. He didn't hear nor see when Dean fell down to the ground with a loud thud. Everything went silent and blank in his world. He didn't longer exist.  
  
Ginny was immediately at Dean's side, grabbing his head up, while Dean just kept saying that he was okay. Seamus just stared at Harry. No emotions were shown from his blue eyes, except from disgust.  
  
"Go away, Harry" Ginny said calmly, her back to him. Harry looked at her blankly, capturing every word but simply not caring. Till she actually turned her head to him. Her long hair covered half of her face like a curtain of autumn red leaves, and her eyes were looking straight at his. . . filled with pain and fear. "Go away, Harry!"  
  
And he left. Not caring about Dean, not even if he would have been dead or alive. Not caring if the world ended at that instant or continued being a living hell.  
  
**************  
  
Ginny looked back at the ceiling, and hummed slowly to herself. It felt as if hours, (or was it minutes?), had passed till Ginny said:" Harry, can I ask you something?"  
  
Harry, who was still gazing at the sky, just mumbled a yes.  
  
"What were you thinking of the yesterday night, when you were looking so distant, like far away in another dimension?" Ginny continued carefully, as if not wanting to scare him.  
  
Harry turned his face to her, a frown building on his forehead. "What do you mean?"  
  
Ginny bit her under lip." You see I was watching you, and I-"  
  
"You were watching me?" Harry said teasingly, raising an eyebrow." And here I thought that you were way over me, Ginny"  
  
Ginny narrowed her eyes, pinching him on his arm. "Don't be so dense, Harry. And besides that was *that *Ginny", she grinned, seeing the mocking expression on his face" which shows how stupid I was a couple of years ago"  
  
"Yeah, right" Harry laughed; rubbing his arm were Ginny recently pinched him.  
  
"Honey, you are waaay to complex and complicated for me, hey you are the most complex guy, no person I've ever met!"  
  
Harry smiled at the memories her words brought to him. "Shut it Ginny. you're not exactly the perfect gal for me neither, you tom girl", he smirked, pushing her mildly while she laughed.  
  
Ginny, looked back at the ceiling." No, but seriously Harry", she continued" As I said, I was watching you-"  
  
"Yeah, you were still watching me", Harry interrupted turning to her. "Which gives me the right to ask you why you even did it in the first place anyway?"  
  
Ginny sighed hopelessly. "If you must know- I watched you with the same interest as an artist watches his work. As you know I like to analyze, to figure out persons. You see, you wore such an interesting and indescribable expression on your face, Harry, and I'm sure that I wasn't the only one who noticed it."  
  
Harry didn't say anything. Yes, he did remember when Ginny told him during one if their first morning sessions, that she liked to observe people. But it hadn't occurred him that she might had done it to him, and knowing that there was someone watching him just when he was thinking one of his most inner thoughts didn't appeal to him at all.  
  
"Harry?" she said his name warily.  
  
"It was nothing, Ginny", he said hoarsely. "Really"  
  
"Harry", she repeats, grabbing the sides of his head, forcing him to look at her. "Stop doing this to you. I know how it feels having something inside, something that slowly consumes every part of your soul because you don't dare to speak out and share the pain"  
  
Harry didn't say anything. Ginny's sincerity had slapped his face and left red scars; his loss of words was a fact as he kept staring even when Ginny removed her hands, her fingers from his face.  
  
"Harry", she whispered hoarsely, not daring to look at him anymore." Remember when I was eleven? Remember Tom's diary?" she paused. The sky had been replaced by a glorifying sunset, and in the mild shroud of melting sun Harry could discern crystal tears form in her dark eyes. "That whole event gave me a lot of pain yes, but it also helped in a lot of ways. I learned how to speak out of what I was feeling by writing, I learned to show my emotions and my problems, not only to myself but to the ones who love you. And when I found this room I found it of much importance to talk, though the minute you step out of this paradise all your problems just tumble over you. and it helps sometimes. . . it helps to talk about them in here. . . just so that the pain won't be as big as it might be"  
  
She still didn't look at him.  
  
"I was thinking about how everything was before . . . in the past" Harry said gruffly, closing his eyes. " I had been thinking about Sirius. His death. Me. The guiltiness I feel every time his face slithers back into my mind. The person I was a couple of months ago. I was thinking about how much I would like to end it all . . . but how? "Harry opened his eyes and found Ginny looking at him, her tears falling soundless down on the white carpet." But then I saw you and I was strangely reminded that . . . that there might still be hope, there is a happy ending, like this room Ginny. I mean, how can such wonderful and at the same time terrifying thing that takes your breath away though you begin to realise how much it means to you . . . like this room . . . exist in a world like this?"  
  
Ginny grabbed Harry's hand." There is Harry." She smiled, and put her other hand on top." You just have to believe, and never forget that what ever happens you will always have the ones who care about you by your side"  
  
"I just wish that he would have been recognised for the great man he was Ginny," Harry whispered, feeling the old lump in his throat.  
  
Ginny breathed in slowly. And tugging a strand of red lock behind her ear she said smilingly to Harry; "And he was. In our Hearts, Harry, he was a hero, a true hero. And his greatness will be known Harry, I'm sure about that. And you know why I think that?"  
  
And all of a sudden Ginny kissed Harry on his forehead. "Because I believe that it will happen."  
  
* * *  
  
Again I'm sorry for the delay, but have been studying abroad and don't have a laptop (but now I have: D). so I wasn't able to update my stories.. But now I'm in the roll again!!!!!!!  
  
OOHHHH I missed my fanfictions soooo much!!!!!  
  
Please review!!! And feedback (  
  
Love You ALL!!!! Claudia 


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